My early years were spent in the mining village of Abercynon, attending Abercynon Infants School, and Abertaf Primary School.
I remember the cold winters and hot barmy summers, frequently interrupted by the usual wet weather that Wales is renowned for.
I was born, at a very early age, in Mountain Ash Hospital. Where I was one of several boys born to various mothers who had all decided to call their baby boys either Martyn, Martin or Mark, this resulted in my father being shown various different babies until with help from my mother he was eventually shown the correct baby, me.
There were many times, especially in my teenage years that my father asked my mother if she had in fact picked the right baby!
My father was a postman whilst my mother, who already had her hands full caring for myself and my two elder sisters, also had several jobs helping out various elderly and sick relatives by doing their cleaning and shopping.
My first memories are living in a house with four rooms downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs, there was no bathroom but it did have an outside toilet which was next to the small shed used as a coal bunker.
As the house was built on the side of a hill it meant that the base of the house was about 5 feet above the pavement and that the back garden was at the same level as the upstairs windows.
At the front of the house was a small garden that was separated from the house by a flagstone path that led to some steps that led down to the pavement outside.
This Garden was my mothers pride and joy and she spent many an hour doing the weeding and tending the plants and was a definite no go area for us kids.
At the back of the house was another larger garden that was a mixture of play area and flower beds.
At the back right hand side of the garden was the back door which led onto the back lane.